Howdy,
On Mon, 6 Aug 2012, Ronnie Day wrote:
> OE parts are always a good bet, but can usually be bought much cheaper
> from sources other than a dealer. That said, braided stainless
> replacements are usually even better for performance and longevity.
I agree that OE parts are a good bet and that they can usually be bought
cheaper from places other than the local dealer.
But I'm going to disagree pretty strongly on the SS brake lines
recommendation. SS lines have the following problems, for me:
* Not as durable as OE. They're more prone to kinking and are likely to
get crap stuck in the braid that then wears away at the inner lining.
* Varying quality. This comes in the form of fitment issues for your
particular application, assembly issues, rusting issues, etc.
* PITA. If you have to replace the brake lines anyway then this goes
away, but generally speaking people are doing this as an upgrade.
Changing brake lines "just because" is annoying.
Coupled with that, modern cars these days don't see any performance
improvement from brake lines. OE lines are well engineered, work well,
and by now have been that way for a long time.
Anyway, the biggest one of all of those for me is the varying quality
stuff. Its not hard to find stories / pictures of SS lines that have
failed catastrophically in a performance / well maintained setting. I
don't recall EVER hearing of an OE brake line that's failed in the same
scenario. Which, to me, isn't all that surprising. OE's have a LOT to
lose if they poorly engineer brake lines. Extremely small performance
parts manufacturers (usually with explict "not for highway use"
disclaimers) don't have anything like the same motivation.
But as always, YMMV.
Mark
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